This invention generally relates to preserving food products and more particularly to a process for preserving vegetables for use in making a Korean national dish called kimchee.
Kimchee is a pickled food which Koreans are accustomed to eating at every meal all year round. The following vegetables and condiments are typically provided for making kimchee: chinese cabbages and/or long white radishes, and a seasoning mixture including, for example, onion, ginger, red pepper, garlic and recombole. Conventionally in order to prepare kimchee in Korea, several heads of freshly picked cabbages and/or roots of radishes are cut up into pieces and soaked in salt water for approximately one or two days. After a desired amount of the seasoning mixture has been added to the vegetables, the whole mass is put into a large jar of water and kept at a moderate temperature for approximately two or three days during which time the mass ferments or sours and starts to acquire the kimchee flavor so that the family can begin to eat it. If the mass of kimchee tends to ferment too fast, as indicated by the taste for example, then the jar in which it is held can be placed in a refrigerator and maintained at about 45 degrees F. to slow down the fermentation process. The madeup kimchee can be stored in this manner for a period of two to three weeks before a new batch need be prepared in readiness for eating.
Because kimchee once it is made up to ferment, is a bulky and odoriferous concoction, it is difficult to transport and store and has traditionally been much too costly to commercialize. This suggests that the vegetables and the condiments be kept separated and sold in that manner in a grocery store or other market so as to facilitate the making of kimchee at home by the purchaser when desired. It should be noted, however, that it has long been recognized that the vegetables such as the cabbages and/or radishes used to make kimchee should be processed as above described within one or two days after they are freshly picked in order to preserve their natural flavor. Thus the problem has been how to store these vegetables for longer periods of time such as two weeks or so without refrigeration so that a fresh supply of the vegetables need not have to be purchased and cut-up each time it is desired to prepare a new batch of kimchee.